Mobile Suit EOS Gundam: Deity's of War
by ZeonikFreak
Summary: The One Year War warfare was more than just giant robots. Enter the world of spy's, espionage, romance, assassians and a suave secret agent above all else, Duke, Agent Duke!
1. Prologue

Epilogue:

0079\. 07. 04

01:27 PST

Zeon Occupied California Base No. 5

In the darkness of the California ocean side, the Zeon occupied California Base No. 5 was surrounded by sounds of insects chirping and night predators who howl in the distance, as night watch guards fight to stay away to keep searchlights upon the base parameter to maintain its isolated security. The Zeon Battalion stationed at the base haven't seen any action since their blitzkrieg attack only 4 months earlier, with their only recreation to pass the time is either by patrols across the California wilderness hunting for straggling Federation forces in the area, or the occasional sporting hunts for the soldiers to claim the hide of wild bears and mountain lions that may roam by the base from time to time.

The base eventually became a weapons development base for the Zeon forces, with a variety of R&D for improved Zaku weapons and new mobile suits to be developed for the Zeon forces. Housed inside the main hanger in the compound facing the far end of the entrance was a new mobile suit being constructed with hover abilities to make these steel giants more mobile across harsh terrain that Zaku's would find difficult to maneuver through. This barrel-chested unit with both horizontal and vertical views was named "Dom." A suit like this would change the tide of the war to enhance the invading Zeon forces within the next few months. With this kind of information being leaked into the Federation intelligence agencies, this raised concerns with high ranking officials, and something had to be done to hold off on the development until the Federation was ready to combat fire with fire within the coming months.

This was also a concern for a night predator the men at the base weren't preparing for, for this night predator was a Federation agent making his infiltration into the base under the blanket of a cloudy night sky. This made the agent sneak into the sewer grate just east of the base, as they crawled in the dark, damp sewer tunnel just a few feet under the sleepy and unaware base guards. The sewer lead to a clear path directly to the large hanger where this Dom unit was being housed, and things were going smoothly for the agent.

Upon reaching the sewer vent cover inside the hanger, it was all too convenient for the agent to be visually protected by large steel crates that housed more R&D pieces to be added to the purple chested giant of death. The agent was under good cover in their dark clothing attire to blend in well with the dimly lit part of the hanger and eagerly made his way to the Dom unit undetected. Upon reaching the end of the creates, a lone zeek engineer slogged near the corner of the create, with his back turned away from the agent. Seeking a quick smoke break from his late night duties, he leaned against the crate with a lit cigarette hanging from the side of his mouth and puffed slowly as he opened up in his left hand an earlier issue of "FeddyBoy" magazine that was left behind when the Zeon battalion took over the base. Flipping through the pages of scantily clad models and articles, the solider felt a brief jerk in his neck before stumbling to his death. The agent was in luck that the soldier's coveralls were able to fit him and quickly took the coveralls off the dead engineer to use as his disguise. The agent glanced at the FeddyBoy magazine laid out on the ground and muttered "Miss February… best looking one so far," before picking up the fallen magazine to place in the location of the dead guard behind the darkness of the crates. With this disguise, this makes the agent's infiltration and extraction a much easier task than he thought previously.

The agent casually walked up to the Dom unit elevator catwalk with a bag in hand and proceeded to the cockpit of the unit. The more the agent got closer to the Dom, the more he realized there was another problem attached to this unit that his superiors didn't know about. Attached to the Dom detached right arm on a service scaffold was a large weapon, which seemed to be a Rail Cannon of some kind. Only a weapon like this could be used to launch a nuclear weapon with great mobility, which is in direct violation of the Antartic Treaty. This would be an effective way to end the war if these rail cannons were equipped with an incredibly mobile unit like the Dom, the perfect death machine. The agent reached into his bag to pull out his C4 and stuck one underneath the cockpit seat of the unit and set the timer for 10 minutes from now. The agent made his way over to the rail cannon and used the remaining C4 on what seemed to be the most vulnerable part of the cannon, and stuck the C4 deep into the circuity of the cannon, with the same amount of time set on the timer. "This should bring some excitement to this dull party" the agent muttered as he walked to the elevator to go down to the floor.

As the agent made his way out of the hanger main entrance, he proceeded to the motorcycles parked near the entrance of the main gate. Within his walk, he realized that most officers on duty weren't up at this hour, and the ones in charge of security were likely not to think much of a new face thanks to the poor lighting from the clouds blocking the moon that night. The agent continued to make his way to the motorcycles and even passed a handful of officers who nonchalantly accepted his salutes as they were headed to the station cantina to get some drinks during their downtime. Upon walking to the parking area, a young zeek officer ordered the agent to halt from behind. The officer seemed to be a young lieutenant who took his duties very seriously. "Where are you going at this hour? Have you done your maintenance check up on the Dom unit?" He barked at the agent. The agent working on keeping his cool responded back submissively "Yes Sir, I did a systematic analysis on the cockpit. I found nothing wrong in my checkup." The agent hoped his response would be the right one the officer wanted to hear so he may exit the base while leaving behind a sizable crater in the agents escape. Before the officer could give an expression of acceptance of the agents answer, one soldier came running up to the officer out of the dark yelling "Lieutenant, we have a spy! We found a body in the hanger!" The officer with his head turned to the yelling soldier, realized the engineer had to have been this spy but wasn't given a chance to get that answer before being cold-cocked in the back of the head by the agent. The soldier saw what this engineer did to his officer and went for his machine gun slung around on his back. The agent had plenty of time within a fraction of a second to whip out his Walther PPK and put three slugs into the soldier before they had time to put their finger on the trigger.

With things changing from making an easy escape to a daring one, the agent quickly hopped onto the nearest motorcycle and revved it up loudly. With tires screeching from the motorcycle, the agent only had a few seconds to get enough distance away from the bunkers before the alarms rang out across the base. Upon the watchtower at the entrance, a zeek guard took aim at the agent and fired his machine gun at him. The agent came under heavy fire from the bullets kicking up dirt near his bike but kept on going to the entrance. A guard stationed at the guard box at the entrance heard what was happening and went inside to sound the alarm. Upon sounding the alarm, the guard quickly grabbed his machine gun to take better aim at the oncoming bike rider since he would be able to empty his whole magazine into the escapee at point blank range. The agent could see the guard coming out of the guard box and took four shots at the guard, which three landed in the gut and one above the heart. The agent was able to escape unhinged with a couple of holes in the bikes gas tank, but there would be enough fuel for the agent to reach his rendezvous point just a mile up the road.

With the confused soldiers hoping into jeeps and supply trucks to apprehend the intruder, a large explosion occurred in the main hanger, causing a gigantic fireball to appear, knocking down and impaling the soldiers with flying debris. The base commander came out of his quarters in a half groggy demeanor to see that housed within the main hanger was up in smoke and in a thousand pieces. The commander barked in fury at his remaining men to put out the fire and pursue the escaping engineer. The agent on his bike expressed a wide grin for a completed mission and was near where his pick up point would be. His cocky smile soon came off his face when he saw his side mirrors being shot off by machine gun fire from a pursuing motorcycle as the solder took deadly aim in the sidecar. The agent had to quickly get off the road and out of sight before making his way to the pickup point and veered the motorcycle into the tree line. Bobbing and weaving between the oak and pine trees, the agent kept his focus on what lied just feet ahead, which was a cliff heading straight down to the ocean below. The pursuing soldiers had the agent in their sights and would finish off this intruder with one more barrage of bullets into his back, but soon saw the agent rev his motorcycle even more and headed straight to the cliff side. Within a flash, the intruder fell off the cliff into an abyss of blackness. The pursuing cyclists stopped just feet away from impending doom of their own and heard a faint splash in the water below. Within mere moments later, they heard another sound, the sound of a Federation river patrol boat leaving the cliff side as it roared off into the night.

On board the boat, the agent was catching his breath from the sheer adrenaline rush he had by escaping and falling to near death. The agent just survived one of his first major missions, which to him felt like it was on the skin of his teeth. Upon catching his breath, a soothing British female accent came from the cabin. "Well done Agent Duke, your officially indoctrinated into the EOS as a full-fledged agent. How does it feel?" The woman asked in a peppy tone. "Well, let's just say that I've fallen for this noble line of work." Duke responded with a suave tone. The woman set the boat on cruise control and put in the coordinates to the Federation vessel awaiting them a few miles off the shore and came to greet Agent Duke in person. She had a slender figure showing through her tight Federation uniform, with scarlet eyes and bob cut red hair, a type of look that grabbed Duke attention in an instant first glance. "Looks like you could use a little 'down time' before you get back for the debriefing." She exclaimed seductively to Duke as she sat next to him on the bench. "Well, having someone to talk about my stress would make my debriefing more enjoyable" Duke responded back to the woman in a romantic tone. The woman placed her arms around Duke's neck and came in for a tender, therapeutic soft kiss to help relax the agent from his first exciting mission. To Duke, these kinds of benefits gladly make up as nice bonuses for each completed mission the longer he stayed alive he thought, as he embraced the young female officer passionate kiss.

Next Time on EOS Gundam: Who is this Agent Duke? What is this EOS? What Danger awaits our Federation Secret Agent? Is there more romance to come for our heroic Duke? Tune in next time for Mobile Suit EOS Gundam!


	2. Chapter 1

14:37 GMT

0079\. 07. 11

Federation Occupied Glasgow, Scotland

EOS HQ quietly sat a few blocks away from the main Federation fleet harbor in an older part of the town that seemed to be surrounded by building rubble from the occasional bombardment of Zeon artillery from the coast. The Zeon naval forces since the invasion would send in artillery barrages off and on during the week to let the Federation forces know they were still within reach of the city, even though they lacked a proper invasion force against the heavily defended city all in thanks to a well-structured stronghold by the Federation. Historians were reminded of a similar situation the British went through many years ago during the second world war, which was famously known as the Battle of Britain. Even then and now, the invading threat to Earth was still having trouble properly overtaking the small but determined island, and seemed that luck and good fortune carried over even now decades later.

Sitting in a furnished office of classic old English furniture and Romanticist era paintings sat an older Englishmen in a burgundy padded chair. The man sported a curved wooden pipe which he puffed heavily on while he adjusted his thin-rimmed reading glasses looking over dossier information of a younger looking gentlemen photo on the header page. The Englishmen studied the information regarding a Federation officer who just joined EOS with a professional description of his identity and attributes that certainly qualify as a top candidate for the organization. The Englishmen refilled his pipe once more with fine Cuban pipe tobacco and took long, slow puffs in order to relight the pipe again as he continued reading on. The dossier information follows with:

Name: Ray Dukopp

Codename: Agent Duke

Height: 6'1

Weight: 175

Eyes: Blue

Hair: Blonde

Age: 32

Nationality: American

Education: B.A. Communication. Minor in Foreign Language and Culture Studies

E.F.F. Rank: Lieutenant Commander

E.F.F. Department: Intelligence

E.F.F. Duties: In charge of gathering intel from Zeon transmissions and relay to front-line forces

E.F.F. Service Record: Stationed under Lt. Gen. Revil fleet at the start of the One Year War. Veteran of Battle of Loum while fending off oncoming Zeon forces to let remaining ships escape. Escaped Battle of Loum in the lifeboat until picked up by recovery E.F.S.F fleet. Stationed at Seattle Base until Zeon forces invaded the city and retreated with E.F.F forces. Currently stationed at Belfast Base.

Experience: Excels in hand to hand combat, excellent marksmanship in small firearms and rifles, and explosives expert. Aviation experience. Speaks English, Spanish, and German. Technological expert in computer programs and information systems.

EOS Missions: Completed Operation: Crosshair at California Base No. 5.

Status of Agent: Agent is fit for service upon completion of the first mission.

The Englishmen didn't have to look too far to find an agent this promising for the EOS, especially one that could fit the bill in upcoming missions that the Federation needed to execute in order to drive these Zeek bastards off the Earth in the coming months. Even with the Zeon holding onto high strategic resource areas for their war effort, they were experiencing their own troubles in a ground force commanded by the youngest Zabi family member. "A family hierarchy like the Zabi family will lead to their downfall eventually," the Englishmen thought as he puffed on his pipe some more and looking out to the River Clyde from the wide office window. If any secret organization in the Federation had a chance of taking down the Zeon forces, the Englishmen made damn sure the EOS would have a strong hand in their demise.

Upon exiting the cab in front of the slightly damaged brick cottage building, Duke tipped the driver generously as he grabbed his coat from the backseat and shut the door to the vehicle. He was only recruited a month ago by the EOS but was never given a chance to step foot into the organization HQ in person until this moment. He was going to make his first formal greeting with his boss, only known to him on paper as "Lee" and nothing else. Duke was greeted by a weathered green door, giving the impression at first glance that the door was as old as the building in which it served its gateway too. Above the door hung a marquee wooden sign that read "Edward O. Smith Realty Firm," which Duke gave a minor scoff at this so-called creative title for a secret organization building. It shouldn't take a brilliant agent, let alone a grade schooler, to figure out that the acronyming of the name is the same as the organization Duke is now serving. Being that it's his first official day on the job, a conversation like that would have to come up later in time.

Upon entering the building, Duke saw the inside as what he would expect from a realty firm, office desks and leather seats to where patrons can come in and get the help they needed in living in a nice home or cottage within Glasgow. With all the traditional furniture to make this place as legit as possible, it did lack one essential component, the people. The office was empty as if everyone was on a lunch break for an indefinite period of time. As Duke walked his way towards the back to see if anyone was present, a woman voice came from the back room. "Just a moment sir, we've been expecting you" exclaimed the woman as the clicking of her heels became louder to the direction of Duke. Duke was met with a woman that can best be described as a ravishing bookworm. She had shoulder length brunette hair tied up in a ponytail with clear-cut bangs above her emerald green eyes behind black reading glasses. She dawned a business appropriate blue dress that ended at the knees, and one that hugged her curvy feminine figure quite nicely. "You must be Agent Duke, Lee has been expecting you for a while now. Was the trip pleasant for you?" She asked in a professional manner. "Other than the bumpy flight, everything else went great" Duke responded, trying to keep his eyes on hers and not on her body, which the secretary found Duke interest in her very flattering. "Let me introduce myself, I'm Agent Honeydew, Lee personal assistant around EOS." She responded by keeping her professional tone. "You seem like your a pretty sweet girl to meet, Ms. Honeydew," Duke responded with his flirtatious demeanor in trying to charm the young lady. "I didn't get int his position on looks and sweetness Agent Duke. And its Agent Honeydew, not Ms., understand?" Honeydew responded back coarsely with Duke. Duke nodded and with a grin acknowledged that Honeydew was more than just an attractive office secretary, and her reasons for being in the agency were just as valid as Duke. Plus, Honeydew seemed like the type that gets hit on a lot and has found a professional and classy way to turn men down in keeping her work area a professional one. Duke respected woman with a good sense of wit about them and Honeydew made a good first impression on him as she led him to see Lee.

The two entered the backroom and Honeydew opened up the dark grey power box, and switched the red lever to the off position. This switch opened up a secret door next to the box and Honeydew escorted Duke inside to meet with his boss. On the other side of the door was another smaller office area, with a bronze coat rack, wooden walls and an office area where Honeydew worked from personally. Honeydew made her way to her desk and picked up the phone to ring Lee phone, and within a couple of rings he picked up. "Yes Mr. Lee, he's here…. Yes, he did come alone…. Yes, it's just him and me on the other side of the door…. alright sir." Honeydew answered. She then reached her hand under her desk and hit a buzzer, which unlocked the wooden door to Mr. Lee room. "Mr. Lee is expecting you, Agent Duke," Honeydew said in keeping up her professional demeanor. "Thank you, Agent Honeydew," Duke responded, making sure he emphasized Honeydew position in a charming manner. "You can call me April, but only after hours, that is" Honeydew flirted back with Duke by locking on to his eyes with a playful smirk to match his own. Duke was beginning to like this job more and more with each passing second and was hoping his response with Mr. Lee would be met with the same warm reception as his receptionist.

Upon entering the door, Duke noticed older gentlemen sitting behind a solid wooden office table, with his short grey hair combed to one side, fitted with a dark blue sports jacket over his business attire, and sporting a wooden pipe in mouth and slowly taking in draws of the tobacco. Duke felt that this gentleman was a rather intimidating one, but figured one has to be for them to be in this kind of business of espionage and intelligence. "Agent Duke, i'm Lee, head of the EOS, and the only person your poor arse must answer too!" Lee belted out as he leaned forward in his chair in a gruff old English accent. Duke came in for a handshake but was meet with Lee iron grip of a real man's handshake. Duke make sure not to flinch in front of a man like Lee since Lee made sure he wanted men strong enough to take death grip from him. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Lee, now that I know what my boss looks like in person instead of over a set of orders on a tablet" Duke responded in a professional tone. "Duke, have a seat, there are a few things to discuss with you" Lee stated in a serious tone, and continued as Duke made himself comfortable in the leather guest chair.

"You don't know much about this organization other than this position being made available to you on short notice, plus based on how your last position human resources evaluated you, you seemed the type that got tired of tucking tail after every outpost those Zeon bastards came to invade" Lee sternly remarked in a professionally serious tone. Lee continued on as he refilled his pipe again "The Federation has come up with counter-intelligence agencies to see what the Zeon are up too and how they plan on taking over the Earth, and we at the Expeditionary Operation Services, or EOS, are one of the main agencies to gather intel on the Zeon and strike facilities that will cripple their war effort enough for our own to develop weapons strong enough to combat their mobile suits as they keep advancing every day it seems." Lee paused to relight his pipe as he continued on his dialect with Duke, "Now that you completed your first mission with us and undoubtedly proven yourself worthy to be an agent of ours, I have another assignment ready for you, and jolly quick I might add" Lee stated as he pulled from his office drawer a file for Duke to look over.

Lee handed Duke his next mission documents and proceeded to narrate what Duke was reading as he began to take long draws on his pipe. "Your next assignment Duke is to protect Lieutenant General Luis Riviera, who is an important general to the Federation. Gen. Riviera is orchestrating a counteroffensive in the coming months that will slowly but surely lead the Zeon forces off the Earth. Gen. Riviera is making a speech at a large Federation outpost outside of Moscow, Russia, which I believe that is the staging area where this counter-offensive will take place towards the mining facilities in Odessa, Ukraine in the coming months." As Duke was looking through the intel for his mission, he assumed the obvious by asking "So am I protecting the General from an assassination attempt of some kind?" Lee exhaled a large smoke cloud from his pipe with a stern "…Yes, that is what the Federation is expecting with him making his morale speech in front of his troops out in the open. We have strong intel that a Zeon agency by the name of RHEA will send one of their agents to take a shot at this chap, and they don't intend on failing either." Lee continued his analysis with another long drag from his pipe as he explained who this RHEA agency is.

"We wouldn't be so concerned with the general life if this RHEA group wasn't involved. They've been behind numerous assassinations since the war started with top-ranking officers in our military. What makes them deadlier is that they are women; highly skilled in weapons and mobile suit piloting skills mind you, along with seducing beauty I might add." Duke couldn't help but be more intrigued by the 'beauty' part of Lee description. "Oh please," Duke slyly exclaimed, "… don't tell me we have these women ranked on a beauty scale below a nine." Lee let go of a light chuckle in his pipe smoke exhalation. "Don't go off thinking you can use some charming interrogation tactic on these beautiful women. You're to shoot and kill them with the sidearm you carry on you, not the one your born with." Duke chuckled slightly at Lee comment as he tried to hold back his grin, "I'm here to follow orders in protecting the general, and I'll use whatever methods I have to complete my mission, sir."

Lee then reached in his right desk drawer and handed Duke his identification to gain access to the Odessa outpost in a brown envelope, along with a silver Rolex that had the time set to the Moscow time zone. "That watch doesn't just tell time Duke, it's also got a built-in high powered laser, in case you ever find yourself in a situation that requires you to leave in a hurry. You also have your Walther PPK as your sidearm, that should be enough to protect you in the field. Your flight to Moscow leaves in an hour, I suggest you don't piddle around hitting on Honeydew to kill time on the way to the Medea transport." Lee sharply stated, giving Duke the first-hand impression that Duke can't have too much fun with his boss when the fate of the war is at stake. "Thank you, sir, headed out now," Duke exclaimed as he gathered his material and headed out the door. "Godspeed Duke, and he who dares wins," exclaimed Lee as Duke went to leave the room.

Once Duke headed out of the room, Honeydew looked up at the more determined faced agent headed out on his next assignment. "Take care Duke, I'll be happy to see you when you get back," Honeydew exclaimed in a flirty yet professional tone. Duke looked back to the cheery-faced brunette and suavely exclaimed, "Hopefully when you see me again, we can find time to piddle around after hours, drinks are on me of course." Honeydew let out a cute giggle from her mouth that she wasn't expecting to have come out, and gave a quick nod in agreement as she went back to her duties. "I'd like that when you get back," stated Honeydew, with her voice expressing her eagerness for Duke company. Duke grabbed his coat from the front office hanger and headed out to catch a cab to the Medea transport, hoping that this mission won't be too bad to handle compared to his introductory mission. But in a field like this, you expect the unexpected at every turn, and Duke was quickly going to realize that once he got to Moscow.

Next time on EOS Gundam: As Duke heads out on his first official mission, what dangers await Duke in his protection of Gen. Riviera? Who is RHEA? How dangerous can this organization be? Does Honeydew have a romantic interest in our Federation Agent? All this and more in the next exciting chapter!


	3. Chapter 2

20:55 CET

0079\. 07. 11

Room 203, Hotel Excelsior Venice, Lido di Venezia

Zeon Occupied Milan, Italy

"These sunsets are always so beautiful every time I see them" uttered softly from the voice of a young woman in her hotel room, as she embraced the bright orange cloudy skies overlooking the Adriatic Sea. Each ripple in the waves was like casting thousands of diamonds into the ocean with each radiant twinkle when the light reflected them coming to the shoreline, and the difference in orange hues from the clouds can bring a tense person to be overcome with an ecstasy of peace. The orange skyline enhanced the lighting to the dimly lit hotel room, as the woman walked up to the hotel bed facing the rooms large window, and sat for a brief moment taking in full view of the beautiful scenery she's been admiring for the past couple of days in Venice.

The orange sunset reflected off the woman long, golden blonde hair, which added to the vibrancy of her hair color like a beacon of light over a dark despaired ocean. The women, wrapped in a white hotel towel from coming out of the shower, reached over to the dark wooden nightstand to light up a cigarette and puffed on it softly while enjoying the radiant reflective ocean. With the cigarette in mouth, she reached under her white satin pillow and pulled out a silenced pistol, and began to inspect the weapon thoroughly before receiving a call on her cell phone. She put the gun down next to her on the bed and reached over to answer the phone.

"Hello," the woman answered excitedly as if she got a call from someone she had been eagerly wanting to talk too. "… Yes, its done. I had him over a while ago." A few seconds went by before the women spoke again "… I got the documents from him, the job is finished. This slims our chances for RHEA to be compromised by the Federation in knowing anything about us" the woman answered confidently. After a few nods and military 'yes' answers into the phone, the woman responded in a stern tone "I did my job in taking out the officer, and if any information about RHEA was leaked before I got there that was out of my hands. I'm not sure what other Feddie spy groups might know about our group but for now, we can still be hidden from their top brass." The woman began to nod while still puffing on the last amount of her cigarette listening to her superior on the other end.

"So my next job is to take out this general from a distance. Consider it done. I'm just packing up my gear and I'll take the next transport over to our frontline base in Vyazma, Russia and infiltrate into this firebase outside of Moscow" the woman replied in a submissive manner to her superior. "I'm heading out now, For RHEA and for Zeon!" The women professed with such raw pride being belted out of her voice. The woman then hung up the phone and proceeded to finish cleaning up her pistol before packing it in shoulder sling hanging off the tall wooden dresser. She took a few minutes to quickly put on her Zeon uniform in the darkness of the hotel room and gathered all her weapons and other material into her duffle bag from the closet. The woman looked around the room to make sure she wasn't missing anything from her persons and then went to close the closet.

Upon moving the sliding closet door to be shut, a blood-drenched arm shot out of the opening at the bottom, which caused the woman to sign in disgust. "Even in your death, you still want to cause me trouble Demitri, you traitorous prick!" The woman disgustedly lashed out to the corpse in her hotel room closet. The corpse of a balding, heavy-set man lied still in the closet, with three bullet holes in the chest, which was still dripping fresh blood from the wounds. "I'll see to it your body ends up in the dump heap with the rest of your traitorous double agent friends when the cleaning staff comes by" bellowed the hellfire of disgust still continuing from the woman as she finally positioned the dead Dimitri hand in a way to cause the door to close shut.

As the woman made her way out of the door, she wondered what damage Demitri really did in leaking her organization out to the Federation. She wondered what group might be targeting her and other RHEA agents in trying to help conquer the earth for the glorious Zeon regime. As she began walking down the hall to the hotel front desk, all she could do is keep her mind on her next mission, in stopping Lt. Gen. Luis Riviera speech, and what counterattack plan he has orchestrating to push back the Zeon advance in Europe.


	4. Chapter 3

Ch 3

14:23 MSK

0079\. 07. 12

Federation Outpost, Firebase "Gloria"

20km outside Moscow, Russia

"Ah, Senior Duke, welcome to Gloria hahaha!" Belted out a hearty laugh from the latino general. As soon Duke gathered his duffle bag from the enlisted men jeep, he was meet with a bear hug of sorts from Gen. Riviera to show his utmost gratitude into protecting the general life and to be apart of his company. Duke was caught off guard by the general's hospitable generosity, which took him about a minute to catch his breath back to normal. "Haha, sorry about that, I get carried away sometimes in greeting people. I come from a family of huggers, I don't mean to be offensive Senior Duke." The general stated in a concerned tone. "Oh don't feel bad about it, I've known women that give harder death hugs than yours, and I can live to tell about them." Duke jokingly responded to make the general feel appreciated for his natural generosity. "Hahahaha, you don't say. There the kind of women I like too!" Riviera laughed as his way of accepting Duke respect in his comedic efforts. The two proceeded to the general office letting Duke inform the general of the kind of danger he may face in a few minutes from now.

Lieutenant General Luis Riviera at first glance instantly reminded Duke of having a South American Generalissimo in a Federation uniform. Depending on what angle you look at Gen. Riviera from, he can at times resemble an overweight Fidel Castro, but Duke doubts him and Castro shared any fascist/communist ideas. His resemblance to the former Cuban leader reflected more when he pulled out a Montecristo No. 2 Cuban brand cigar from his left uniform pocket and began to moisten the tip in his mouth in preparation for smoking. His subordinate stumbled to grab his zippo quickly and covered the end of the cigar for it to be lit properly. After a few deep puffs, the smoke cloud from the general mouth equated to the smoke settling after a constant artillery barrage. "Ah, I love a good cigar before I make a speech, makes me look like a mean hombre to the Zeon, no?" Riviera exclaimed in a grin with his dark beard brushing against the cigar from the side of his mouth as he looked at Duke. Duke couldn't help but chuckle at not only the comment by the general but how well his cigar magnified his persona as a stereotypical South American general villain in a James Bond movie. "Oh, I think the Zeon will be threatened by your 'larger than life' attitude as a Federation generalissimo" Duke responded encouraging to the general, which was all the more reason for his ambiance to be heightened to help boost morale more amongst the men.

On the other side of the firebase overlooking the Medea landing field in direct view of the stage the general was about to speak on, a Federation scout looking out onto the Russian forest felt a sharp stab in his upper back, noticing in his final breath that a large combat knife was poking out of his right lung, doused in his own blood. Not able to grasp his final breath, he slumped into the total darkness of his death. Overlooking the soldier corpse was a beautiful blonde woman with aviator shades that were benefiting the candy-colored red lipstick lavished upon her luscious lips. The woman wore a textrued forest BDU pattern from neck to toe, and only had on her person a high powered 30-06 sniper rifle with a large Browning hunting scope at the top. "This job is going to be a cinch to complete, in and out in a flash," the woman remarked as she took the metal ladder on to the top of the hanger roof to get a perfect view of the stage within her scope.

The woman went into a prone position and took off the lens caps of the scope, and began to make her adjustments to her sights to make sure her one and only shot counts against her target onstage, the general that was about to give his speech. She made her calculated adjustments on her scope to account for the small breeze coming in from the west and could see off in the distance behind the stage in the officer's room a large number of high ranking persons gathered together. She knew in that room was her target, but waiting patiently for her chance to take her shot once this Feddie general came on stage. She noticed someone that wasn't in full officer uniform that was amongst the crowd, which was a man with short, thick blonde hair combed to one side with a blue button-down shirt and tan khakis that was conversing with the high ranking leaders in the room. "Mmm, maybe this general bodyguard perhaps, or maybe one of those agents from a Federation agency we've been getting reports about" she thought as she zoomed in closer on the man that caught her attention. For a brief moment, she had a moment of bliss at the man's handsome facial features, which made her blush for her instant sexual attraction for the man in blue. She then shook her head to get back into concentrating on the other men in the room, and not so much the fantasy of being charmed by this handsome stranger in blue if her circumstances were different at this time. She then noticed the man in blue started to face a latino looking officer sporting a thick cigar in his mouth with a very serious look.

"Gen. Riviera, I'm lead to believe that the best way someone could take you out would be by a sniper rifle, and within the base parameter. I urge you to reconsider this speech for a later time till I know for certain you are safe to speak!" Exclaimed Duke, putting his hand on the shoulder of the general in order to assert his role in his protection, hoping that his efforts in being stern would convince the general not to continue with the speech. "Agent Duke, I understand your reason for being here, and for my safety, but these men need a strong leader like myself to motivate them for the next big operation that is about to take place" the general empathetically replied back to Duke, whose cigar was about halfway gone in ash at this point. "I know the risks of being a general, every day I risk my life! I'm not afraid to die for our cause in defeating the Zeon, and I need to show these men that, especially in this dire hour of need on how our forces are at this moment" the general charismatically stated with great passion. Riviera may have been known for his questionable ethics with women and drinking, but he was too proud to let an assassination attempt stop him for being the voice of morale, especially one that could turn the tide of the war. "Then let me put on some body armor, and I'll take the bullet for you if it comes to it because it just might happen in the next few moments" Duke exclaimed back to the general. "You do what you have to do," the general graciously replied, "one of my sergeants can put on our best body armor for you under your shirt. Let's hope this 'supposed' shooter bullet will be more attracted to hitting you than me." Duke nodded in agreement, and a sergeant took Duke to the back room and assisted with the body armor fitting for Duke.

Within a few moments, Duke and Gen. Riviera came on stage together, and a roar of applause flooded the air with every man available on base that wasn't stationed at a post for guard duty. the general raised his arms high in the air, showing off his larger-than-life personality and charisma to the weary battle-torn men of the base, which caused them to cheer even louder than before. As Duke was surveying the opposite end of the base, he was looking for any kind of scope reflection from the hangar roofs, since he believed the sun could reflect off the metal in a way to leave a glimmer of reflected light bright enough to be noticed from the far end of the base. As the general made his way to the podium shaking the hands of his fellow officers with great enthusiasm, a brief sparkle of light came from the top of the metal hanger on the opposite side of the base, catching Duke attention instantly. Duke called on one of the nearest officers to hand him his binoculars in order to check the roof, in hopes that what he saw isn't what he expected. Upon the officer handing his binoculars to Duke, the general was front and center in front of his men, and begin to speak with great eagerness and charisma.

"Let me say to you men, that it has been a long, hard-fought battle from the beginning of this year till today…" the general began his speech, with his cigar between his fingers in one hand while moving his arms as though a conductor was to direct an orchestra, as the general was the leader of his musicians to be used as instruments in this bloody war. As the general continued, Duke had a clear view of the top of the roof, and a terrible sinking feeling hit his gut upon what he saw. He saw prone on top of the roof a woman with blonde hair in BDU camo, with a powerful rifle in hand. The rifle of course wasn't pointed at the agent, but slightly to the right of him, in the direction of the general. In an instant, Duke threw down the binoculars and dashed to the general to protect him while yelling "SNIPEEEER!" A low sounding shot rang out the moment Duke had his body fully protecting the general in a mid-air leap of sacrifice. In the next moment, Duke took the impact of the bullet as his body began to twist in mid-air from the bullet impact on his body. There was a nothing but silence as the Federation soldiers, officers and Gen. Riviera looked on in shock of the full display of Duke courageous act.


End file.
